PUERTO CARRENO, Colombia (Reuters) – On the banks of the Meta river where Colombia meets Venezuela, hundreds of olive-green baby turtles are waiting in makeshift plastic tubs to be released into the wild.
Saturday’s release of 1,200 baby turtles marks the last stage of a conservation project which has according to project leader, Ruth Bustos, had already released 3,150 this year into the South American waterway, a tributary of the Orinoco, one of the continent’s longest rivers.
Volunteers from Colombia’s navy and national army cradled the tiny turtles in their hands and gently lowered them into the grassy shallows.
Carolina Pinzon, second commander at the city’s coastguard station, said the project, which has operated for more than ten years, is looking to protect the region’s freshwater turtles from illegal trade and natural predators.
(Reporting by Javier Andres Rojas; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
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